1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 549- 



RAFINESQUE'S TYPES OF UNIO. 

 BY E. G. VANATTA. 



Mr. C. A. Poulson, in A Monograph of the Fluviatile Bivalves of 

 the Ohio River, Translated from the French of Prof. C. S. Rafinesquey 

 Philadelphia (1832), p. v, states that he has "most of the shells 

 described" by Prof. Rafinesque in the Monographie des Coquilles 

 Bivalves Fluviatiles de la Riviere Ohio} These shells are now in the 

 collection of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with 

 Rafinesque's original labels and ink numbers on the specimens. These 

 numbers are the same as those in Prof. Rafinesque's Monograph 

 of 1820. 



The fractions given bj' Rafinesque after each species indicate at 

 what point upon the shell a given dimension is found. The figured 

 species agree well with the types or specimens in hand. 



As some of Rafinesque's names are now in use, I believe it will 

 be of interest to determine by what names these shells are known 

 at the present time and the effect on nomenclature if they were 

 recognized and the names dated from 1820. 



Many of Rafinesque's species have been credited to Conrad by 

 Mr. C. T. Simpson.2 



Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, to whom this paper has been submitted, sug- 

 gests that it should be explicitly stated that the use of a Rafinesquian 

 name depends upon whether it could be identified by descriptions 

 published prior to any other recognizable name for the same species. 

 That it can be recognized from the types or other specimens from 

 Rafinesque does not entitle his names to acceptance unless the 

 published descriptions are adequate. This question of the adequacy 

 of published diagnoses must be considered for each species separately. 

 It is not taken up in this paper, which deals merely with the question 

 of the identity of the Rafinesque-Poulson specimens. 



^ Annales Generates des Sciences Physiques, Tome 5, Bruxelles (1820), p. 287. 



- Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Vol. 22, No. 1205, p. 501, 

 Washington (1900); Sytiopsis of the Naiades or Pearly Freshwater Mussels, by 

 Charles Torrey Simpson; and in A Descriptive Catalogue of the N^aiades, by C. T. 

 Simpson, Detroit (1914J. 



